Thoughts On - Alien RPG 6 (No Spoilers) - Updated

 Hello Everyone,

                           Thanks for joining me tonight. Richard, our GM has just got the Alien Colony expansion and recommends it to all GMs. It certainly got his creative juices flowing. He was on fire tonight. 

The episode begins as one of our NPCs had been infected by something nasty, it was gradually coming on over a few days, but we could not find the source of the problem. We popped her into the Auto doc, just to make sure. When she came out of the auto doc, she was silver and proceeded to wipe the floor with us. She killed one NPC and very wisely, four of the party fled. 

                            One of the scientists put the research Lab's nuclear power plant into critical mode, with a 10-minute countdown. The two of us fighting this critter reached record stress levels (14 and 17) before we finally took her down with three minutes to go before the reactor was due to go BOOM. We are now permanently at stress 1 and have a phobia of the colour silver!

                             Later, two of our party working outside got jumped by a silver face-hugger-ish thingy, as I was watching in horror on the monitor. Our Marine went catatonic, due to the phobia he had just received, and the other junior party member drove off in a buggy, with this thing as a passenger. He went into shock and froze at the wheel, crashed the buggy, as you would expect, slashed his leg open and is now bleeding out. That is where the episode ended.

               Side note: This was a three-hour session as opposed to our usual two-hour sessions. Thanks as usual to Richard (GM), John and Kitty. I hope you are having as much fun in your game as we are.    

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell

Thoughts On - Alien RPG 5 (No Spoilers)

 Hi Everyone,

                       I just thought I would give you a quick report on the Alien RPG. It is almost one year since we started the game and apart from the odd week here and there due to work commitments, we have been playing it on a weekly basis on Friday nights, two-hour sessions of mayhem. This goes to show what the GM has at his disposal in the way of terror and shock tactics. We keep coming back for more.

                            This week, one of the party (not me) attempted to take out a face-hugger type alien attacking a party member who was wearing a spacesuit, with his flamethrower, the fact that three other Colonial Marines were in the line of fire and coming to help their buddy did not seem to bother him. RESULT - Three almost unconscious Marines, one with a broken leg. The Alien was weak, but still up and battling. I finally managed to bag it with a pistol shot. SPLAT! Just a day in the life of a Colonial Marine.

        We are due to have some colonists arriving soon, I'm not too sure what they will think of the amenities that we have here, or rather what's left of them after all sorts of critters have been rampaging through them.

Thanks again to Richard and John for a great game.

Watch your six!.

Ivor Cogdell

Red Alert Board 3 - January - February 2024

 Hi Everyone,

                      This is my third Climate Change Red Alert Board, where I post the unusual weather events that have been battering people in one way or another during this year. It is a partial record, just the snippets I have heard about and posted.

4 January - United Kingdom - Storm Henk caused flooding along the River Trent, it is expected to top 5 meters above level. Over 200 Flood Alerts were issued by the UK Meteorological Office. A previous flood in this area occurred in 2003. Source - BBC Radio 4.

Southern France - Continued flooding affects Calais. Source - YouTube video clips.

7 January - River Soar, UK. A narrow boat was ripped away from its moorings during a flood and then got pinned against a bridge, where it subsequently sunk, blocking the river access to the area. Thankfully, the owner was not on board, but this contained all of his worldly possessions. There is a "GoFundMe" Appeal if you would like to contribute. Source - YouTube video clips. and Metro, The Independent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mklpGkqylA

https://metro.co.uk/video/narrowboat-trapped-against-bridge-river-soar-swells-following-heavy-downpours-leicestershire-3094211/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/narrowboat-sinking-at-barrowonsoar

10 January - Maine, USA - Flooding Hampton and other areas along the coast. 80 km winds caused 42,000 people to lose power. Tides expected to be 11 feet were actually 31 feet. Roads have been forced to be closed. Source - The Nature (On Youtube).

12 January - 2023 was officially the warmest year since records began in the 1850's. Both ground and space observations agree. Source - NASA.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures#:~:text=According%20to%20an%20ongoing%20temperature,1.9%C2%B0%20Fahrenheit)%20since%201880.

19 January - UK. Five people were killed in separate incidents of cars hitting fallen trees during Storm Isha. Source - Daily Mail Online.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12993241/Pictured-Storm-Ishas-victim-Jimmy-Rowe-car-crash.html

Storm Jocelyn is on the way to the UK. It is the tenth named storm in five months. Previously a named storm season has only reached K in 2016.  Source - The Independent.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/scotland-met-office-dublin-airport-glasgow-airport-river-b2483666.html

7 February - I am not certain of this, but I thought a news broadcaster said that we had passed the

 1.52 'C temperature mark since records began. I would not be surprised to find it was true. This totally blows away all of the promises and pledges made around the world by governments and big companies to clean up their act. 

                         People are trying to make a difference by re-hydrating the soils in arid regions and other projects, but it is just not happening fast enough and on a big enough scale to make a difference yet.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/global-temperatures

 More to Come.

Ivor Cogdell

Seasons Greetings - Updated 23.01.2024

 Hi Everybody,

                            I hope you all had a good festive season. I was mainly watching tutorials and battle reports on YouTube. I did get to see a few non-gamer mates too. I watched seasons 1-4 of The Expanse, which I can highly recommend, the books are very good. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey is the first in the series, I believe.

                              I have been flicking through Mighty Empires and printed out the rules, (I need more ink before I can do Rally) and "Rally Round the King" since the "Old World" has been revamped in the new books and models that are coming out. I will not be getting the updated versions as I have Version 1 and 6 of Fantasy Battles, not to mention that they cost a bundle. 

I do want to find my mini bat rep photos before I start anything new. I think my monitor is on the way out too.

Regards all,

Ivor Cogdell